Reference is made to pending patent application number P 38 08 616.6, filed in West Germany on Mar. 15, 1988 by Pitney Bowes Deutschland, GMBH, the employer of the applicants, which application realtes to the same invention as this application and under which priority is claimed pursuant to 35 U.S.C., section 119. The invention relates to a system for processing articles for shipment, including a scale, a printer, a memory and a keyboard, and a processor coupled to these components.
Previously known systems have been used to prepare shipping documents, such as parcel labels, waybills, manifests, and the like. Although these systems have simplified to some extent the steps involved in preparing such documents, these systems were not capable of preparing the documents required for various shipping modes, such as mail, train, air freight or private carriers without overnight express, parcel post, air or surface freight, or private or public carriers, without substantial and time-consuming efforts by an operator. In addition, different rate tables, calculating modes and form requirements have to be observed. It should be noted that the various carriers each require documents that differ from one another in format and information required.